Story-Teller

“Then Jesus said, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.  When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.  He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’” (Mark 4:9-12)

Jesus often brought His lessons alive with stories, many of which He told in the form of parables.  A parable is basically an earthly story with a spiritual message.

This style of story-telling uses symbolism and is intentionally ambiguous, making the parables difficult for people to understand. Jesus said that only those with ‘ears to hear’ would be able to understand what He was saying.  Thus, the parable format enabled Jesus to boldly instruct those who were open to what He was saying, while keeping His deeper meaning hidden from the people who opposed His message.

But as He neared the cross, Jesus gradually allowed His meaning to become clear.  By the time He told the Parable of the Vineyard Workers in Mark 12:1-12, the religious leaders understood His meaning all too well.

In the story, a man plants a vineyard and leases it to some farmers, but at harvest time the farmers refuse to pay a portion of the harvest back to the vineyard owner.  Instead, they beat and kill the owner’s messengers, and even kill his son.  Ultimately, their murderous behavior is punished, and the vineyard is given to other tenants.

Although they now understood the parable, the religious leaders still refused to heed its lesson. Instead, “Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them (Mark 12:12).” 

Meditation

What do your ears hear in this parable today?